“After having open-heart surgery it’s going to be very interesting. Especially with a cow valve.” Robin Williams held court here, seated and almost staid at times, jumping up occasionally, but acknowledging he’ll have to work up to doing 90 minutes live after undergoing aortic valve replacement surgery in March.

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He was quite philosophical at times, grateful just to be around, grateful for his kids. He just started riding his bike again.

He’s going back to standup, he says, because ran out of merchandising money from “Bicentennial Man.”

He made fun of “birthers,” folks who challenge Obama’s birth certificate, Lou Dobbs, Sarah Palin, texting, rehab (“in wine country just to keep my options open”), his own surgery (“My doctor’s my dealer now and a lot harder to get hold of”) and his old movies.

Obama doesn’t make a lot of mistakes, he noted, “which is good for the country, bad for comedy.”

“Weapons of Self-Destruction,” his HBO special, is slated for Dec. 6 at Washington’s Constitution Hall.

Larry David offered a few details about an upcoming faux reunion of “Seinfeld,” the show he wrote previously, within this season’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” The famously prickly funnyman has forever been asked about a “Seinfeld” reunion. “We always said no, but thought it might be very funny to do on “Curb.””

Expect five shows scattered through the season will feature the “Seinfeld” cast. This year’s “Curb” season finale will be about the reunion show. Possibly one hour.

He wrote the “Seinfeld” finale, which was not critically well received 11 years ago. What does he think of it now? “Very good show.” And the people who panned it? “Morons.”

“Curb” returns Sept. 20 on HBO.

Two clips from upcoming shows are taken from incidents in his real life, David said. One has Larry wrestling with the impenetrable plastic packaging so common these days. Prying, knifing, it’s all hilarious. The other has him walking down the street, scowling, and a woman chirping at him, “Smile!” His look is priceless.

“True Blood,” “Hung” and “Entourage” get renewals for another season each, Richard Plepler and Michael Lombardo, co-chieftans of HBO, told the press tour Thursday. With 11 million viewers a week, “True Blood” is the ratings heavy weight for the network.

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“Big Love” will return in January. They’re trying to put together a season 3 for “In Treatment.” Gabriel Byrne is willing but scripts have to be created (previous seasons were based on an Israeli show.)

HBO showed a clip of the forthcoming “Band of Brothers” sequel, “The Pacific,” for March 2010. The next Tom Hanks project looks equally expensive and ambitious.

“People are staying home and watching television and we provide good value,” Plepler said of the economy. “Not that we’re going to be increasing our programming budget,” Lombardo cautioned.

talked smart talk at the press tour this afternoon for her upcoming series on Discovery, “Out of Egypt.” She studies macabre burials, death rituals and comparative cultural views of death. Making connections between Egypt and other cultures is her speciality. Her academic peers at UCLA are fans. “The dean of humanities digs it,” but she still has to write a book to get tenure.

Bet you don’t know how to set a gummy bear on fire in a test tube.
Whoopi Goldberg didn’t know, either.

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But now she’s executive producer of “Head Games,” a trivia game show coming to Discovery’s Science Channel in October. So she’s all about the science.

Bet you didn’t know a flea can jump with the velocity of the space shuttle.

Greg Proops (“Flight of the Conchords”), comedian-host of the series, told us so.

Bet you didn’t know Bic pens contain a smell like a termite phermone, that termites will follow?
Or, that bird strikes against airplanes are one in a gazillion. That last fact helped Whoopi get here, given her fear of flying. A gazillion? Really?

From the gore of “Spartacus” to a cerebral drama from the Brits: “Occupation,” a four-hour mini- coming in October about the aftermath of the war in Iraq from the British perspective,

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from the writer of “Viva Blackpool,” and the producers of “Life on Mars” and “MI5.”

Peter Bowker says his comfort zone as a writer is flawed men talking about their feelings. Expect less battlefield action than internal reverberations. They do well on this kind of closed-end, one-off, event programming. I’m curious.

Onward to comedy. Advice from the producer on discerning the British-isms in “The Inbetweeners,” the network’s adolescent geek comedy: “If in doubt, think genitalia.” The network plans to put a dictionary online to help non-Brit speakers of English. Oh dear, the discussion of “Inbetweeners” inevitably leads to wishful comparisons to “Freaks and Geeks,” which BBC America president Garth Ancier acknowledges he cancelled. A different time, a different network.

Finally (give me strength), the network pitches the supernatural. A werewolf, a ghost and a vampire walk into a bar. Actually they walk into “Being Human,” already on the air. From the questions being asked, it’s clear trend stories are in the works, vampires being in vogue now.

What travels best across the pond is fantasy, Ancier says. Hence, “Doctor Who.”

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Russell T. Davies (“Torchwood,” “Queer As Folk”) talked about casting the 10th Doctor, David Tennant, with a lighter tone. The next installment, “The Waters of Mars,” looks funny-scary based on a clip. It’s due in November.

Bold, violent and sexy, they claim. Not just Lucy Lawless, but the whole series “Spartacus,” premiering January 22 with lots of skin, “Rome”-style. “None of the restrictions of regular television,” the network boasts. Judging by the preview clip, “Spartacus: Blood and Sand” has much less to do with sand than blood.

“It’s mostly getting stabbed, slashed, hacked and beaten to death,” said producer Steven DeKnight. Think “300” with gladiators, or “Sin City” in sword-and-sandals. Lots of work for the makeup department.

Speaking of which, the Q&A devolved into a discussion of prosthetic devices used for male genitalia, which are prominent throughout the series. The most prominent of all was knicknamed “the Kirk Douglas,” producer Rob Tapert (“Xena” and “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys”) said. Who wears what and who doesn’t need assistance is a secret that will remain with the makeup department, he said.

Lawless (“Xena: Warrior Princess”), in a see-through tank top and jeans, talked about playing Lucretia, wife of Batiatus. Theirs is “a slightly toxic love, modern people may call them the bad guys.”

“Spider-Man” will take Sam Rami away from the project, but he was there for the creation.

Strange blending of scientific exploration and Ripley’s-Believe-It-Or-Not programming. Shouldn’t National Geographic be worried about diluting the brand? The goal is “authentic stories, the human element… in an informative and entertaining way,” says general manager Steve Shiffman. Upcoming topics: Amazonian headshrinkers,

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killer sharks, a girl who bleeds from her eyes vampire-style, and living on Mars. They’re edging toward the sensational.

But another film, “The Human Family Tree,” airing August 30, is a gem in the NatGeo tradition. A five-year study by IBM and NatGeo results in a stunning documentary about how humans first spread around the world. Critics were handed DNA cheek swab kits and offered the chance to trace their own “deep ancestory.”We’re bound to be surprised, like the folks in the film. More to come.

Finally, the four burly guys from “Rescue Ink Unleashed,” tough-talking animal rescuers who shut down abusers, mouthed off about Michael Vick. Yeah, they believe in second chances. But you could tell founding member Big Ant

First up, History Channel is pushing “WWII in HD,” a 10-part event for fall. How odd to see these restored rare archival images in color. Gary Sinise narrates.

Next, “The People Speak,” the Matt Damon project about the meaning of democracy, has many names attached who’ve been in live performances of the piece–Bruce Springsteen, James Brolin, Don Cheadle, Marisa Tomei, David Strathairn. Damon reads from the Declaration, from Steinbeck and more.

On the press tour panel with producers: Damon, Tomei and Howard Zinn, historian and author (“A People’s History of the United States”), from whose book the film is adapted.

“It’s very empowering,” Damon said. He grew up next-door to Zinn and had one of the first hardback copies of his book.
“It is our right and our duty to engage in an antagonistic discussion with the powers that be,” Tomei added.

Damon detailed the project’s evolution (it was originally at HBO) over a decade. “This was the third incarnation.” How’d he keep going? “I’m an actor, I’m used to rejection.”

Joanne Ostrow has been watching TV since before "reality" required quotation marks. "Hill Street Blues" was life-changing. If Dickens, Twain or Agatha Christie were alive today, they'd be writing for television. And proud of it.